[snugglebeary]

I always laugh even whenever things aren't suppose to be funny.

Like last night, my boyfriend got mad at me over the phone and he was trying to talk to me about how I need to start listening and I was laughing the entire time and he asked why I was laughing and I told him that I wasn't laughing and said that I was crying instead. It was a horrible cover-up, but it's hard to explain why I laugh because I don't know.

I remember in eighth grade I got sent to the office because I laughed while watching a movie about the Holocaust. It isn't like I thought it was funny, I just laughed for no reason.

Sometimes I'll start bursting out laughing in my room for no reason.

Or when I'm talking to somebody, I'll act silly and laugh because I think I'm being really funny and others think I'm being retarded.

The other day I randomly made this evil laugh during a awkward silence and the I started laughing at myself for doing that.

Besides laughing, I'm always happy and smiling in inappropriate situations.

I remember people asking why I always smile whenever I tell them sad stories about my life. Like how my mom passed away seven years ago.

Okay, back to the inappropriate laughing. Whenever I get in trouble I'll either laugh or be overly-dramatic and start crying and say things like how everybody wants me to just die.

I remember being overly dramatic when I ran up the phone bill. I wrote this two page letter to my guardians about how I'm a horrible child and about how they need to stop judging me.

Does things like this happen you guys? I'm assuming it's part of the disorder...right?

[BipolaRNurse]

I've heard that it is part of the disorder. I do the same thing.....always have, and never figured out till I was diagnosed why I do it. It's worse when I'm hypo/manic, but I always seem to do this stupid chuckling at THE most inappropriate times. I think it's my way of covering anxiety or sadness, idk.

[unaluna]

it sounds like a lot of terrible things have happened to you in your short life? and maybe you haven't ever had someone there to help you manage your feelings or make sense of these situations, but you've been left on your own to just cope. I wouldn't even have understood what good help would have been like; "help" usually meant someone making things even worse.
If you have a bipolar diagnosis, then are you in therapy? have you spoken to your therapist about this? I would say you were distancing or dissociating yourself from your feelings as a habit, not really as a bipolar thing.

"Snuggle", this cracking me up. I'm glad you brought this up cause I too have done this numerous times. I ran over a very loved family dog and found myself laughing as I hammered the cross I made and even etched on. Instead of crying I just hammered and laughed saying I love you "Levi", I'm sorry you ran under my car and I didn't stop. Or my ONLY grandma's funeral when I found myself not being able to stop laughing and having to leave the palor. Or when my car broke down for the hundreth time and I had to walk about 10 miles home in the middle of the night laughing. Or the accident that happened the other day on the interstate and they had a sheet thrown over some dead person.
I watched the movie "Dictator" the other night, and as inappropriate as it is I laughed my butt off. I think that is one place that influences us to laugh in these situations. TV sheds humor on the worst of things. Just watch "Family Guy" sometimes. I don't know if it is something we should cure because what's the other option.....crying ourselves into depression?

I do it too. I liken it to tears of joy or happiness and laughter of distress. Both strong responses to emotions. Maybe we just turn to the one that we can handle producing at moment.

I dont think it's a bipolar disorder thing as much as a coping thing.

[Victoria'smom]

I do it too. I worry that I don't care because of it. That something is seriously wrong with me because I seem to start making jokes as soon as something bad happens.

[BlueInanna]

i want to do *maniacal laughter* right now for no reason... seriously i'm sitting here somewhat depressed, but when i read that you did the sinister laugh and made yourself laugh at yourself, it gave me a good chuckle. i'm not going to do it right now because my son is nearby and i dont want to freak him out.

the thing you say about laughing at the holocaust movie, and other times when you're trying to be serious worries me though. because in that case you really didn't want to be laughing and also i don't think you want to hurt others' feelings.

i have read that women tend to laugh when uncomfortable, so that doesn't help when we've got bp too. i've mellowed out with age and think this is something you can work on with a T or with practice controlling reactions to things.

[Miswimmy1]

I think it could be a coping mechanism. Like different ppl deal with emotions in different ways.

Originally Posted by Anika

...I dont think it's a bipolar disorder thing as much as a coping thing.

I think so too.

Originally Posted by BlueInanna

...i have read that women tend to laugh when uncomfortable,...

Could be. From personal experience, nervous laughter is something my mother has always done. A LOT. Just as one picks up speech patterns growing up... so too the "add ons". Then I remember hearing that it was a very hard thing to "unlearn". This news did not please me. Still, being conscious of it did help to rein it in to a level that didn't bother me as much. Now, the most common time for me to laugh inappropriately is when I'm very hypomanic. There was one time at a meeting where there would be serious things, and I apologized in advance, saying if I had to leave the room, it was only because I couldn't stop laughing, even when I know it isn't funny at all. (They knew I was hypo, very, so they understood.)

Originally Posted by BlueInanna

i... but when i read that you did the sinister laugh and made yourself laugh at yourself, it gave me a good chuckle.

Yes, here too. Do it all the time. Well, not sinister laugh, but just something random or goofy. I can amuse the hell out of myself, lol. Hey, why not, right? Sometimes the worse it gets, the more I joke. It's a defense mechanism for sure. I try to keep it in self-deprecation though and refrain from using it towards other's situations because it tends not to translate well. I have a dark sense of humor, and that doesn't bother me. A lot of time though, I think like what WNT2bNRML talks about -- if I didn't laugh, I'd cry. (Not that I don't do that too.) It just gets to such crazy levels sometimes, whatcha gonna do, you know?

A bunch of what you're describing though sounds like uncomfortable things. Like a coping mechanism that is bothering you, and like BlueInanna says, is something that can be worked with. You can still be goofy (yea!) and get to where the other is more comfortable.

[snugglebeary]

It doesn't really bother me, but in some situations it makes people angry with me. There are times where they would just laugh along, too. But that's right I would rather laugh than cry.

[Kristiemarie]

I laugh when I'm nervous, scared or unsure. It's like I know the orrect response is serious but I can't help it. It's like, laugh or cry for me. And I certainly don't want to cry.

[derekgraham78]

I've always done it too, always when I was uncomfortable I think

[PiperLeigh]

Do you watch Modern Family? Last season there was an episode where Claire unintentionally smiled every time she talked about someone who died. It was hilarious and relatable. It's just one of those things some folks do. It doesn't mean you're a bad person. It's a coping mechanism. Lots of people do this. Not a big deal, but you can talk to a therapist about it if it is interfering with your relationships. ++

hahahahaha!. i've done this plenty of times!

1 such time i was at colledge in maths class and we were talking about adition.

so the teacher's like... go on, what, plus 11 =62?

and i just burst out laughing... for weeks after that, the teacher always gave me sums with the number 11 in it- even though i don't find it funny at all

it was just a moment

i've also laughed at little things like i could be watching a movie and the dog would bark or someone would open a door, and i'd burst out laughing

it's just so weird

[faerie_moon_x]

I have this 'nervous laugh' when I talk, not always but a great deal of the time. I do it so much it's more like a tic than anything else. I can't help it.

My uncle, however, who I do not know to be diagnosed with anything, also does it. And he also has that "randomly starts laughing" thing. Me and my cousins used to discuss it because he would do it a lot. Say at Thanks Giving dinner the table will fall silent and then suddenly there's my uncle laughing into his plate. So I wonder if it's more an anxiety thing rather than a bipolar thing?

Also, the over reacting or reacting incorrectly, I also have that problem. You should keep a mood chart and track that type of thing to show to your doc.